A network for all who care about the conservation of our world and who want to see it achieved with justice, compassion, dignity and honesty.

The future of forest conservation.

History is being made in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Local communities have participated in redrawing the borders of a nature reserve. They now seek effective participation in the management of the reserve. If successful, this experience could become a model for future conservation projects.

Indigenous Peoples and local communities have been conserving their lands and forests for centuries. But the rise of “fortress conservation” is forcing them from their homes, hurting people and forests alike.

In this blog post: - Tanzania Breweries Limited; Thomson Safaris take Maasai land as their nature refuge; Lesinko shot at Enashiva Nature Refuge; Trent murdered; 2009 drought; The sign; First international article; The PM’s “report”; Unanswered UN letters; The court cases; Becoming a blogger; The negotiations; Children beaten; Five herders prosecuted for trespass; Killing a website; More journalists in trouble; Olunjai shot; The big intimidation campaign in Loliondo; Charity as a weapon – and recently buying who could not be bought; Current silence.

Intimidation and Illegal Arrests to Derail the Case Filed Against the Tanzanian Government by Four Loliondo Villages

In this blog post: “Secret” intimidation and illegal arrest campaign. eNCA piece about Loliondo - husband of interviewed family currently in police custody. The hearing. Another, maybe unrelated, wave of arrests. Kigwangalla’s budget presentation and the timid opposition reaction to Loliondo. Oakland’s response to the Tanzanian government. Manyerere Jackton again. What has happened? (summary that’s very useful for newcomers).

Loliondo Report by the Oakland Institute and Kigwangalla Makes his U-turn Even More Extreme

In this blog post:
Report by the Oakland Institute;
Kigwangalla becomes like his shamelessly lying predecessors;
Livestock detained at Wasso market;
Secret meeting for a “friendlier special authority”;
OBC’s gift to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism;
Summary for newcomers.

Escape from Protection: The Catastrophe of Conservation in Panama.

Typified by The Nature Conservancy and The World Wildlife Fund, Global Conservation as such is really an arm of colonialist foreign policy going back at least a century, and its fundamental aims have not changed.

Cloaked under a veneer of idealism, protected area conservation is a cynical and ubiquitous foreign policy charade, harming both the environment and its inhabitants throughout the world. Indigenous residents are displaced either as a matter of policy by force or through ecosystem degradation, depending on the protected area category set by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Swiss-based body for conservation, founded in 1947 as a lesser-known leg in the postwar international system.

Fenced out of nature.

Kruger National Park and the communities around its borders represent the global front line in the battle against rhino poaching. South Africa contains the largest remaining rhino populations in the world, and most of the killing is happening in and around Kruger.
In these villages, residents are caught in the middle of an escalating fight between poachers and conservationists — one that has grown in intensity and violence as prices skyrocket. Poor and dispossessed, these villages potentially hold the key to solving this crisis in the long run, and yet distrust runs deep.